


Everybody's Lonely

by turnofthesentry



Series: Lightning in a Bottle [2]
Category: Archie Comics & Related Fandoms, Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Awkward First Times, Bisexual Reggie Mantle, Canon Compliant, Car Sex, Closeted Character, Complicated Relationships, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotionally Repressed, Implied/Referenced Sex, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:15:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23198446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turnofthesentry/pseuds/turnofthesentry
Summary: Set around 3x16 (Big Fun) and post-4x01 (In Memoriam).The two of them stayed friends, and have even grown a bit closer in the months that passed since that night, but they’ve never talked about it. Things between them haven’t been tense or awkward like they’re sharing a dirty secret, either, but like it simply never happened at all.Which, to Reggie, comes as a relief.Though sometimes Reggie still wishes Kevin would bring it up.
Relationships: Kevin Keller/Reggie Mantle
Series: Lightning in a Bottle [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1667929
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	Everybody's Lonely

**Author's Note:**

> At first this was going to be a much slower burn 3-parter, but you know, I have enough WIPs as it is I made it work just as a sequel. Please enjoy!

That Reggie and Kevin are friends, at this point, would be fair enough to say. 

Maybe not especially close ones, no, but friends nonetheless. Reggie likes Kevin, he’s never really had an issue with the guy besides thinking he was a bit of a know-it-all -- though maybe that was mostly thanks to the company Kevin keeps more than Kevin himself -- but they’d never really been friends before, just casual acquaintances. 

He always figured that Kevin thought of him the way smart girls do. Smart girls have this tendency to write Reggie off as a meathead, a dumb jock and frivolous playboy, and while Reggie can be all of those things, a lot of it is because he knows how to lean into people’s expectations of him; it’s easier to play that up than exhaust and embarass himself trying to prove them wrong. 

Because proving himself is one thing, but setting himself up for failure is quite another. 

Reggie tries not to do that as a rule -- bad for the ego, _natch_ \-- and sticks to calculated risks instead, unless it’s something he cares so little about that failing even with an audience won’t sting. That’s part of the whole persona, after all; if he’s not really trying, then it doesn’t count. If he doesn’t care enough to try, then it doesn’t really matter. 

Thinking back, kissing Kevin that night a few months back hadn’t been a calculated risk at all. Reggie tried to justify it to himself later, when he was back home and mortified that he’d kissed a gay guy and been _rejected_ , but it had been a stupid, impulsive move from the start. 

Not that it mattered. The two of them stayed friends, and have even grown a bit closer in the months that passed since that night, but they’ve never talked about it. Things between them haven’t been tense or awkward like they’re sharing a dirty secret, either, but like it simply never happened at all. 

Which, to Reggie, comes as a relief. 

Never be the rebound, he’d said, and now here he was failing to take his own advice, failing in the worst, most intimate way. Reggie may be used to rejection, but that doesn’t mean it ever gets any easier. 

Things hadn’t worked out for Kevin, either. Moose had to leave town, because that’s what happens when guys like him or Reggie, guys with dads like theirs, come out. 

Best case scenario, that’s what happens. 

Good thing guys like Reggie don’t need to come out at all. 

When the cast sheet goes live, Reggie draws a little heart on it, just as a joke. Just another stupid, impulsive move. 

Archie Andrews………..Kurt Kelly  
❤️’s  
Reggie Mantle……………Ram Sweeney

But even if it is a joke (haha, get it), Reggie does have the foresight to add it in red ballpoint pen -- as diametrically opposed to the blue sharpie he’d signed his initials with as he can think of -- so that no one will know he was the one who did it. Because even if it is a joke--

There’s only so much Reggie knows he can get away with. 

It’s not just that Reggie’s the popular captain of the football team; other jocks still probably couldn’t feel up guys or slap their asses with such reckless abandon as Reggie does without raising an eyebrow or two, but Reggie knows how to cultivate expectations almost as well as he can play into them when he needs to. Almost everything Reggie does is okay when _he_ does it, because people have been conditioned to expect it from him. 

Typical Reggie. Don’t read into it. 

Sometimes Reggie wishes Kevin would bring it up. He wishes Kevin would ask him about the kiss, why Reggie did it and what he’d been thinking, he wishes Kevin would encourage him to come out like he did for Moose. He wishes Kevin could help him find answers to the questions Reggie doesn’t even know enough to ask. 

Instead Reggie lets himself become Veronica’s rebound again, and then another time after that, because her hand reaches out for him and it’s far too easy to grab. He regrets it later, but not in the moment, not until he’s alone again.

Just like that night. 

After the play it’s a while before Reggie and Kevin talk again. It’s a while before Kevin talks to anyone that isn’t part of the Farm, and when that finally happens, Reggie is far from being the first person on his list of reconciliations.

Still, he drives Kevin home on the morning of July 5th. Like before, it’s a fairly easy, comfortable silence, except this time neither of them really knows what to say to each other. 

“Don’t,” Kevin says when they reach the turn to his house, touching Reggie’s arm with a suddenness that’s slightly startling. “Not-- not yet.” 

Reggie turns the blinker back off and keeps driving. 

“All right,” is Reggie’s response, so casual he almost sounds apathetic. He glances over at Kevin next to him, but Kevin’s looking out the window. 

“You good, bro?” 

“Reggie, _please_ don’t ask me that,” Kevin says, exhaling with a harshness that’s almost a groan. 

“Sorry.” He scoffs, resting one arm along the windowsill while the other hand remains on the steering wheel. “Where’m I going?” 

“I don’t know, just… just go _anywhere_ , Reggie, I don’t even care! Surprise me.” 

Reggie rolls his eyes, biting at his cheek so as not to give into the simple impulse to slam on the brakes and kick Kevin out of the car. He settles for making a sharp turn, smirking a little when Kevin’s face hits the window. 

“Don’t start, Keller. _You--”_ He shakes his head, pointing at Kevin when the expected incredulous look is shot his way. “Had that one coming.” 

“How are you--?!” Kevin’s eyebrows knit as he rubs his temple, gaze drifting out to the road before it settles back onto Reggie, but then he just sighs. “How can you possibly be this relaxed right now? No, not even just now, how are you _always_ so--” 

“What do you mean?” 

_“--Detached?_ I mean for God’s sakes, Reggie, we’re coming from a funeral--” 

Reggie rubs his mouth, keeping his eyes forward, past the bright tunnels of light his headlights cast on the dark, empty road in front of them, but then he pulls over by the edge of the woods.

He parks and takes the key out of the engine, turning to face Kevin now, his elbow leaning on the steering wheel. 

“You know what?” His tone is similarly combative as he makes a sweeping, outward gesture with his other hand. “That’s none of your friggin’ business, Keller.” 

“I...” Kevin seems to be rethinking his argument, or maybe just regretting it. He fumbles blindly for the car door handle even though it’s locked, as if wanting to reassure himself it’s there, but then Reggie raises both palms as a gesture of peace and he relaxes a little more. 

“Sorry, it’s just…” Kevin rubs his hands over his face. “Look, I’m a mess, all right? A lot has happened, and no, not just to me but to _all_ of us, and I? Am… not over any of it, Reggie. Not at all. And I don’t know, _maybe_ having emotions is just a side effect of all the brainwashing finally wearing off, but you always seem able to bounce right back from anything.”

He snaps his fingers.

“Just like that.” 

Reggie just stares at him in silence. _Yeah,_ he wants to say, _because shit happens, Keller. You either roll with the punches or you throw your own, but you never let them knock you down._

You never let them see you sweat, and you definitely never let them see you cry. How exactly does that make him the weird one? 

“That’s how I deal with things,” he says instead, raising his eyebrows in parallel motion with how he shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t.” 

Now Kevin’s quiet, although not for long. “I guess I already knew that.” 

“Yeah, I guess you _would,”_ is Reggie’s only mildly brusque response. He doesn’t look at Kevin, but feels Kevin looking at him all the same. Feels the gentle, deliberate way Kevin’s hand lands on his thigh to squeeze it comfortingly. 

Reggie looks over, and Kevin looks back, both knowing in that moment that they’re thinking the same thing right now. 

“I don’t wanna go home yet either,” Reggie says. 

“Then let’s not,” Kevin agrees. “Let’s just stay here parked by the edge of the woods not dealing with... with whatever this is.” 

“No.” Reggie shakes his head, unbuckling and climbing into the backseat. “Let’s deal with it.” 

“Or-- or that, I am... _good_ with that, too.” 

Reggie lays across the seat and Kevin climbs over him, maneuvering awkwardly between the front seats to join him there in back without accidentally kneeing Reggie someplace painful in the process. The car is cramped, but not unpleasantly so. 

Kevin leans down to kiss him and Reggie kisses him back, experimentally at first, but rapidly heating up once it hits them that unlike last time, there’s nothing stopping them from continuing now. It doesn’t matter what happens tomorrow or if this ever even happens again, all that matters is that they’re both single, lonely, and very, very willing. 

And that they’re friends; that matters, too. Neither of them is exactly spoiled in that department these days. 

The car is cramped, a little _less_ pleasantly so now that they have Reggie’s long limbs to contend with as belts fumble open and jeans slide down. Kevin almost loses his balance trying to reach in front to get the glove box open, but everything they need is in there, so they make it work. 

“You. Are so. _Unbelievably_ loud,” Kevin says between breaths after they’ve finished, laughing when Reggie half heartedly palms at his face in irritation.

“Bite me,” Reggie says back, but Kevin just kisses him again instead. “Uh, hey...” 

“Yeah?” 

“I can’t do what Moose did,” Reggie begins, brushing his damp bangs from hanging over his forehead. “But I’m not going anywhere either.” 

He hopes Kevin understands what he means without him having to elaborate, but luckily, it seems that he does. 

“I know, Reggie. And it’s fine, I can handle a one night stand.” Kevin sits up, untangling himself from Reggie’s legs. “But if you ever change your mind, I… it’s okay if we take it slow.” 

Reggie smirks a little crookedly. 

“Sure, Keller,” he says, using the seat to help himself sit up as well. “So wait, are you calling me boyfriend material?”

“I’m saying… that we’ll see.” 

“Deal,” Reggie says, still grinning. “Now get _off_ me so I can take you home already.” 

Yeah. Maybe they would see.


End file.
